It's Weird, It's Better

So I've been listening to a lot of more abrasive, avant-garde music. That's ranging stuff from like, free-jazz combos to Japanese performance art-experimental rock and noise music. Really, I'm surprised that the human brain can even process this stuff and like it - so far it's turned every other person I've exposed it too quite off, but one can always hope.

As far as I can figure, free-jazz is a delicious amalgamation of the things that make jazz great, but mindless flailing on respective instruments to create a sometimes unlistenable atmosphere of sound. I've heard it compared to throwing a saxophone down the stairs. It's the most fun form of music to play, because you can do whatever you want, but apparently not so fun to listen to. Well, actually, I have to disagree with that.

In my scouting around of the internet, I did a lookup on Mike Patton - he's the vocalist for the bands Mr. Bungle and Faith No More, both disbanded, and both which did crazy, insane stuff music wise. Both are beyond description, but for a good approximation of Mr. Bungle, think funk-metal fused with mathcore, and samplings of every other genre in existence. Haven't listened to Faith No More that much, so I couldn't tell you what to expect. Mike Patton did guest vocals for the Dillinger Escape Plan album I reccomended a while ago - Irony Is a Dead Scene, which, exasperatingly, is my favorite album of theirs. It's representitive of their work as a whole, sure, but a vocalist that wasn't at all constant. Anyway...

In looking about Mike Patton, and with some help from some online aquaintances, I got turned on to two bands - Naked City and The Boredoms. I'd already heard of the latter, but the former was completely new to me.

Both of the groups are... kind of odd. They both feature, to an extent, the same vocalist - all though in this instance, the word 'vocalist' might be a stretch. Yamatsuka Eye (otherwise referred to as eYe) is the closest thing The Boredoms have to a front man, and has the weirdest 'singing' style I've ever heard, consisting of distorted grunts, squeaks, wails, and all sorts of crazy shit - with occasional real singing. He's also the vocalist on a great many Naked City albums... so you see, everything has connected. His main group, The Boredoms is what you would call... experimental avant-garde Japanese noise rock. They do a lot of weird things, ranging from albums full of noise, to tribal drum patterns, to freaky performance art.

Naked City is the reason I'm making these connections, however. Basically, it consists of some amazingly talented and odd instrumentalists (or performers, in eYe's case) putting together experimental 'composition workshop' albums that are a total earfuck - in a good way. The band is fronted by John Zorn, who is in fact the recipient of the MacArthure "genius grant" - for his genre transcending performances and virtuoso saxophone playing.

The band is a total head-trip. I really can't describe a lot of their sound - it's certainly odd. Most people I showed it to would pronbably 'wtf' their brains out, but there's some more coherent stuff on their albums, especially their original self-titled. For that reason, I'm uploading said-album, but I really reccomend checking out the other albums - any requests, and I will delve out the other two I have.

Free-jazz and experimental avant-garde projects aren't for everyone, but it's certainly a very diverse range in music to cover - so, without further ado, Naked City. Upload is here.

Later, I'll return for a real post - one on my thoughts about noise and experimental music, and how musical trends look for the future.